Iran's government said Sunday it arrested the daughter and four other
relatives of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the country's most
powerful men, in a move that exposed a rift among the ruling Islamic clerics
over the disputed presidential election.

State media also reported at least 10 more deaths, bringing the official
toll for a week of confrontations to at least 17. State television inside
Iran said 10 were killed and 100 injured in clashes Saturday between demonstrators
contesting the result of the June 12 election and black-clad police wielding
truncheons, tear gas and water cannons.

Police and members of the Basij militia took up positions in the afternoon
on major streets and squares, including the site of Saturday's clashes.
There was no word on any new clashes Sunday, although after dark many people
in Tehran went to their rooftops to shout "Death to the dictator"
and "Allahu akbar," a common form of defiance in recent days.

State-run Press TV reported that Rafsanjani's eldest daughter, Faezeh
Hashemi, and four other unidentified family members were arrested late Saturday.
Initial reports suggested Hashemi was still being held Sunday after the
others were released. But both Iran's ambassador to France, Seyed Mehdi
Miraboutalebi, speaking on France's RFI radio, and Iran's al-Alam Arabic-language
television channel said Sunday that she'd been released as well.

Last week, state television showed images of Hashemi, 46, speaking to
hundreds of supporters of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. He alleges
fraud in the June 12 election, which the government said President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad won.

After Hashemi's appearance, hard-line students gathered outside the Tehran
prosecutor's office and accused her of treason, state radio reported.

The arrests are the strongest sign yet of a serious divide among Iran's
ruling clerics.

Also Sunday, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said on state television
that the number of people questioning the election results was large and "this
group should be respected and one should not mix this big population's account
with a small group of rioters."

Rafsanjani, 75, heads two powerful institutions. One of them, the cleric-run
Assembly of Experts, has the power to monitor and remove the supreme leader,
the country's most powerful figure. The second is the Expediency Council,
a body that arbitrates disputes between parliament and the unelected Guardian
Council, which can block legislation.

The assembly has never publicly reprimanded the unelected Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei since he succeeded Islamic Revolution founder Aytollah
Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989. But the current crisis has rattled the once-untouchable
stature of the supreme leader with protesters openly defying his orders
to leave the streets.

Underscoring how the protesters have become emboldened despite the regime's
repeated and ominous warnings, witnesses said some shouted "Death to
Khamenei!" at Saturday's demonstrations another sign of once unthinkable
challenges to the virtually limitless authority of the supreme leader.

Rafsanjani was deeply critical of Ahmadinejad during the presidential
campaign and has the potential to lead an internal challenge to Khamenei.

His daughter's arrest came as something of a surprise: In his Friday
sermon to tens of thousands of worshippers, Khamenei praised Rafsanjani
as one of the architects of the revolution and an effective political figure
for many years. Khamenei acknowledged, however, that the two have "many
differences of opinion."

Khamenei has accused foreign media of making "malicious" attempts
to portray a schism among the ruling clerics. At Friday's prayers, he acknowledged
that all four presidential candidates "have differences, but all of
them belong to the system."

Iran's regime continued to impose a blackout on the most serious internal
conflict since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

But fresh images and allegations of brutality emerged as Iranians at
home and abroad sought to shed light on a week of astonishing resistance
to hard-line Ahmadinejad and Khamenei.

The New-York based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said
scores of injured demonstrators who had sought medical treatment after Saturday's
clashes were arrested by security forces at hospitals in the capital.

It said doctors had been ordered to report protest-related injuries to
the authorities, and that some seriously injured protesters had sought refuge
at foreign embassies in a bid to evade arrest.

"The arrest of citizens seeking care for wounds suffered at the
hands of security forces when they attempted to exercise rights guaranteed
under their own constitution and international law is deplorable,"
said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesman for the campaign, denouncing the alleged arrests
as "a sign of profound disrespect by the state for the well-being of
its own people."

Thousands of supporters of Mousavi, who claims he won the election, squared
off Saturday against security forces in a dramatic show of defiance of Khamenei.

Iran has also acknowledged the deaths of seven protesters in clashes
on Monday.

State media also reported a suicide bombing at the shrine of Khomeini
on Saturday killed the attacker and injured five other people.

There was some confusion about the overall death toll. English-language
Press TV, which is broadcast only outside the country, put the toll at 13
and labeled those who died "terrorists." There was no immediate
explanation for the discrepancy.

Amnesty International cautioned that it was "perilously hard"
to verify the casualty tolls.

"The climate of fear has cast a shadow over the whole situation,"
Amnesty's chief Iran researcher, Drewery Dyke, told The Associated Press. "In
the 10 years I've been following this country, I've never felt more at sea
than I do now. It's just cut off."

Iran has imposed strict controls on foreign media covering the unrest,
saying correspondents cannot go out into the streets to report.

Reporters Without Borders said 23 journalists were arrested over the
past week. The British Broadcasting Corp. said Sunday that its Tehran-based
correspondent, Jon Leyne, had been asked to leave the country. The BBC said
its office remained open. The U.S.-based newsmagazine Newsweek said its
journalist Maziar Bahari was arrested Sunday morning and had not been heard
from.

Also Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki held a news
conference where he rebuked Britain, France and Germany for raising questions
about reports of voting irregularities in hardline Ahmadinejad's re-election.

Mottaki accused France of taking "treacherous and unjust approaches."
But he saved his most pointed criticism for Britain, raising a litany of
historical grievances and accusing the country of flying intelligence agents
into Iran before the election to interfere with the vote. The election,
he insisted, was a "very transparent competition."

That drew an indignant response from British Foreign Secretary David
Miliband, who "categorically" denied his country was meddling. "This
can only damage Iran's standing in the eyes of the world," Miliband
said.

European Union officials said Iran summoned diplomats from EU member
countries to protest what it described as interference in its internal affairs.

In Washington on Saturday, President Barack Obama urged Iranian authorities
to halt "all violent and unjust actions against its own people."
He said the United States "stands by all who seek to exercise"
the universal rights to assembly and free speech.

Obama has offered to open talks with Iran to ease a nearly 30-year diplomatic
freeze, but the upheaval could complicate any attempts at outreach.

Republican senators criticized Obama on Sunday for not taking a tougher
public stand in support of the protesters, with one saying the president
had been "timid and passive."

Israeli President Shimon Peres applauded Iran's pro-reform protesters
Sunday, saying the young should "raise their voice for freedom"
an explicit message of support from a country that sees itself as most endangered
by the hard-line government in Tehran.

Saturday's unrest came a day after Khamenei sternly warned Mousavi and
his backers to call off demonstrations or risk being held responsible for "bloodshed,
violence and rioting." In his Friday sermon, Khamenei sided firmly
with Ahmadinejad, calling the result "an absolute victory" that
reflected popular will and ordering opposition leaders to end their street
protests.

Mousavi did not directly reply to the ultimatum.

His camp, meanwhile, denied reports that he had proclaimed himself ready
for martyrdom on Saturday.

"Mousavi has never said this," his close ally, Qorban Behzadiannejad,
told the AP. Mousavi's Web site also said statements that Mousavi was preparing
for death were inaccurate. †

Protest against fake elections TEHRAN IRAN
13 June 2009

16 JUNE 2009 - Doctors and nurses are protesting
in a major hospital in Tehran - Iran

At 1:41 one of nurses is shouting "8 people died in this
hospital last night". of them1 died by a headshot...which said
that poor brave man shot by sniper. at 1:35 you can see on that
board which written in Persian "28 wounded...8 died"

Morning of 16 June...Rasoul Akram Hospital's doctors and nurses
are protesting about what happened in the last night gunshots by
Government's militia (basij) and police. 36 people shots By Gun
8 dies and 28 injured .

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